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Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
the issue at length. He did, however, offer an interesting observation 
about gamete selection. Focusing on gametes, he says, is useful 
because it "isolates you away from some of the other compelling 
arguments about moral status of the embryo and allows a sort of 
cleaner discussion about what are the social goods or evils 
associated with broad alterations in the sex ratio and inequities in 
access to that technology” (Collins, 2002, 7). In other words, if in the 
future we could screen gametes in the same way that we can now 
screen embryos, most of the moral issues raised by PGD would apply 
to gamete screening, even though gametes are not embryos. Might 
we not make a similar claim about embryonic and adult stem cell 
research? Do not many of the most pressing issues raised by 
embryonic stem cell technology remain when our focus is adult stem 
cell work rather than embryonic stem cell research? 
The fact that we do not immediately answer yes to this 
question, is testament to how decisively the debate about abortion 
has structured the stem cell debate. Nevertheless, we need to see 
that the answer to this question is yes and we need to see why. 
Although I will not try to address all of the issues raised jointly 
by embryonic and adult stem cell research, it is worth highlighting 
several that I think require fuller discussion particularly with respect 
to adult stem cell work than they have yet received. 
Commodification Issues 
Moral concerns about the commodification of gametes 
and embryos have been discussed extensively in the 
bioethics literature both in relation to reproductive 
technology and in connection with embryonic stem cell work 
(See Andrews and Nelkin, 2001; Annas, 1998; Corea, 1986; 
Radin, 1996; Resnik, 2002; Ryan, Ethics and Economics . 
2001). Suzanne Holland, for example, has discussed the 
growing commodification of the human body in the biotech 
age. She cites a series of articles published in the Orange 
County Register that documents a vast for-profit market in 
human body tissue (Holland, 2001, 266). The Register’s 
investigative reporters documented that most nonprofit 
tissue banks obtain tissue from cadavers donated by family 
members of the deceased for altruistic reasons. Most 
relatives are not told, and in fact have no idea, that donated 
body parts will be sold for profit. As Holland puts it: 
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